Driver app, offline-first
The day's stops are downloaded in the morning. Everything a driver does is recorded on the device and syncs when signal returns. Nothing is lost in a basement or a highway dead zone.
CASE STUDY
Example buildMobile AppDelivery Tracking App
Driver app with live location, proof-of-delivery photos and an owner-side status board.
- Type
- Driver app + owner board
- Build time
- About 8 weeks
- Platforms
- Android and iOS, offline-capable
- Starts at
- ₹20,000*
This is an example build. HumansOfCoding is a new studio with no client work to show yet. This page describes how the project would be scoped and built — the same thinking you would get on a real one. Nothing here is a past client, and no number on this page is a result.
THE SITUATION
What's actually broken.
A logistics operator runs a fleet of drivers and finds out where a consignment is by calling the driver. Proof of delivery is a signature on paper that reaches the office days later, and disputes about whether something arrived are settled from memory.
The constraint that shapes the whole build is that drivers work in patchy network coverage. An app that only works online is not an app for drivers.
Finding a consignment means phoning the driver
Proof of delivery is paper that arrives days later
Delivery disputes get settled from memory
Apps that need signal are useless in a dead zone
VERSION ONE
What we'd build first.
Every item here earns its place by being something a real user would miss on day one.
Location tracking
Batched and sent periodically rather than streamed continuously — the difference between a phone that lasts a shift and one that dies at 2pm.
Proof of delivery
A photo and a recipient name, timestamped and location-stamped, attached to the consignment permanently.
Owner status board
Every active vehicle on one map, with delayed stops highlighted instead of buried in a list.
Customer tracking link
A link showing an ETA and no more. Customers do not need to see the driver's live position all day.
DELIBERATELY NOT IN V1
What we'd leave out.
Not because these are bad ideas. Because each one is designed better once the first version has told you something.
- Route optimisation. A genuinely hard problem; buy it from a specialist API later rather than build it now.
- Fuel, maintenance and driver payroll — a separate system.
- Barcode scanning at each hop, unless the operation already labels consignments consistently.
UNDER THE HOOD
How it's put together.
- Driver app
- React Native with a local database on the device and a sync queue — this is where most of the engineering effort goes
- Owner board
- React with a mapping library
- Backend
- Node with Postgres and PostGIS for the location data
- Photos
- Compressed on the device before upload; drivers are often on mobile data they pay for
HOW IT RUNS
Week by week.
-
01
Week 1
The consignment lifecycle and what a driver does at each stop, watched in person if possible.
-
02
Weeks 2–5
Driver app, offline storage and sync. The long stretch.
-
03
Weeks 6–7
Owner board, map and delay alerts.
-
04
Week 8
Two drivers run it alongside paper for a week.
BEFORE YOU START
Worth knowing.
Offline-first roughly doubles the effort of a driver app compared with an online-only one. It is also the difference between drivers using it and drivers going back to the phone call. Budget for it deliberately.
MVPs start at ₹20,000*. Final pricing depends on features and project scope. Third-party costs — cloud hosting, domains, external libraries, APIs, app-store fees and any other paid service — are billed separately and are not included.
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